Our neighboring community college Middlesex has recently decided to remove the word “Community” from its name in a rebranding effort. It is now Middlesex College and their teams will now be the Middlesex Colts instead of the Blue Colts.
What inspired the change? According to an InsiderNJ interview with Middlesex President Mark McCormick--who was a Dean and then the Vice President at MCCC from 2005 to 2007– “With our new name and rebranding, we aim to spread the word about all that Middlesex College stands for and to help dispel the stigma around attending a two-year institution.”
When I first read about Middlesex’s decision, I thought maybe they were on to something. After all, the community college brand does face a stigma.
We’ve all heard the derogatory remarks, “Oh, but she’s only going to a community college” with a dismissive eye roll or snicker. It’s 13th grade. It’s for people who couldn’t get in anywhere else. There are plenty of these stigmatizing remarks to choose from.
Moreover, according to Middlesex’s excellent student newspaper, Quo Vadis, “He said the 13 member marketing team along with Top Right held five workshops and interviewed members of key stakeholder groups” before deciding to move ahead with the change. They didn’t make the decision lightly.
Before shifting my position I thought maybe we too have just outgrown the word “Community” which was originally attached to two-year colleges like ours back in the 1960s when the vocational college movement gained traction and individual counties were putting up a lot of the funding. Besides, I thought, we aren’t really just a county college anyway. We have international students and athletes, we have a University Center drawing from around the state.
Even MCCC President Dr. Jianping Wang acknowledged in an interview, “For some reason, a lot of people equate community colleges to places where people don’t have other alternatives.”
But then she pushed back against this stereotype saying, “In Mercer, we always pride ourselves to be a community college because a community is in our mission. Our mission is to serve the community and those colleges that have taken the road Middlesex is taking now have experienced a one-time enrollment boost.” She suggested that a name change might have some brief impact, but it wasn’t a long-term strategy.
My view started to shift. I thought back to my mom who went to a community college in Morris County when I was growing up. She studied nursing and it led to a career as an RN at a local hospital.
I remember seeing her workload and practice tests. It was rigorous. I asked her about it recently and she laughed and said, “It was tough, but I had some excellent professors and I learned a hell of a lot.” Plus, she added, “It was great because it wasn’t far from home and it was affordable.”
I’m a mom myself now, and I don’t feel ashamed of where I’m getting my college education. And I’m not alone. I conducted a survey of my peers and found 80% of MCCC students do not see a negative connotation with the word “Community” in colleges.
Dr. Wang pointed out to me that there are far fewer community colleges in the US than four-year colleges, and yet community colleges serve many more students.
It’s true. According to the US Department of Education, there are about 4,000 (4,298 to be exact) degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the US, and only about 1 in 4 of them are public community colleges. However, community colleges educate 47% of college students in the US and are the fastest-growing segment of higher education.
Of course, the COVID-19 lockdown has significantly affected MCCC’s enrollment, but that’s not because we have the word “Community” in our name.
Dr. Wang stated, “I don’t think a name change is going to change the perception. It’s more like let people know what kind of students we produce, and the more we can talk about that, the more we can change [perceptions].”
Moreover, the value of community colleges is being acknowledged at the highest levels and that will also help reduce the stigma.
First Lady Jill Biden is a community college professor, and the new American Rescue Plan which was passed through Congress and the Senate promises “$35 billion in funding will be directed to public institutions, including community colleges.”
MCCC is on the rise and it’s rising with “Community” right in the center of its mission and its name. We don’t need to take the word “Community” out, we need to embrace it. If it wasn’t for this local and affordable option, we would likely not be enrolled anywhere. We should be grateful for community colleges giving thousands an equal opportunity for education.
Having said that, there is one way we might want to follow Middlesex’s lead and that is rebranding our mascot. In my survey I found people really wanted to move on from the Viking.
With 62% of students at MCCC being racial and ethnic minorities, and the fact that the very white Vikings never set foot on what is now New Jersey, retiring the mascot seems legitimate.
A third of students surveyed preferred the Mercer Leopards, a third went for the Mercer Mustangs, and the other third suggested anything would be better than the Vikings. Their ideas included squirrels, foxes, or even deer.
Our neighbors at Haverford College outside of Philly are the Black Squirrels. UC Santa Cruz has the Banana Slugs. The University of Nebraska has the Cornhuskers. Those names, silly as they may sound, reflect something relevant to the schools.
My vote is with the Mercer Foxes since my fellow students and I are sly enough to get a great education without going into debt to do it.
